Electronic control device

Abstract

The reliability of path planning calculation can be evaluated with low load without using multiplexing of calculation or an additional sensor. The electronic control device includes an integration unit that acquires information around a vehicle as sensor information from a plurality of sensors for each processing cycle, and integrates the acquired sensor information to create vehicle peripheral information for each processing cycle, a path planning unit that calculates a planned path on which the vehicle will travel in the future using the vehicle peripheral information for each processing cycle, and a path evaluation unit that evaluates reliability of the path planning unit, in which the path evaluation unit that uses, in the planned path calculated by the path planning unit in a first processing cycle, a position of the vehicle in a second processing cycle, which is a processing cycle after the first processing cycle, and the vehicle peripheral information created by the integration unit in the second processing cycle to evaluate the reliability of the path planning unit in the first processing cycle.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. An electronic control device comprising:
 an integration unit configured to acquire information around a vehicle as sensor information from a plurality of sensors for each processing cycle, and integrate the acquired sensor information to create vehicle peripheral information for each processing cycle; 
 a path planning unit configured to calculate a planned path on which the vehicle will travel in the future using the vehicle peripheral information for each processing cycle; 
 a path evaluation unit configured to evaluate reliability of the path planning unit, wherein
 the path evaluation unit uses, in the planned path calculated by the path planning unit in a first processing cycle, a position of the vehicle in a second processing cycle, which is a processing cycle after the first processing cycle, and the vehicle peripheral information created by the integration unit in the second processing cycle to evaluate the reliability of the path planning unit in the first processing cycle; 
 
 a behavior prediction unit configured to estimate a future position of an object existing around the vehicle based on the vehicle peripheral information in the first processing cycle and create a risk map showing a position of the object in the second processing cycle; 
 an integrated evaluation unit configured to evaluate consistency between the risk map and the vehicle peripheral information in the second processing cycle; and 
 a prediction evaluation unit configured to evaluate consistency between the risk map and the sensor information in the second processing cycle, wherein
 the electronic control device is an automatic driving ECU for an automatic driving system, wherein a lower ECU group controls the vehicles brakes, engine, and steering based on the output from the automatic driving ECU. 
 
 
     
     
       2. The electronic control device according to  claim 1 , wherein
 the plurality of sensors are composed of a first sensor and a second sensor, and the prediction evaluation unit evaluates reliability by the risk map, and a majority vote of an output of the first sensor in the second processing cycle, and an output of the second sensor in the second processing cycle. 
 
     
     
       3. The electronic control device according to  claim 2 , further comprising
 a first determination unit configured to determine reliability of the first sensor and the second sensor in the second processing cycle based on the evaluation result of the integrated evaluation unit and the evaluation result of the prediction evaluation unit. 
 
     
     
       4. The electronic control device according to  claim 1 , wherein
 the integration unit or the path planning unit is determined to be abnormal when the evaluation result of the path evaluation unit matches a predetermined pattern. 
 
     
     
       5. The electronic control device according to  claim 4 , wherein
 the predetermined pattern means that the evaluation result of the path evaluation unit is negative for a predetermined number of times or more in succession. 
 
     
     
       6. The electronic control device according to  claim 1 , further comprising
 a notification unit configured to notify a passenger of the vehicle that an evaluation result of the path evaluation unit is negative. 
 
     
     
       7. The electronic control device according to  claim 1 , wherein
 the path evaluation unit records the evaluation result that the evaluation result is negative. 
 
     
     
       8. The electronic control device according to  claim 7 , wherein
 the path evaluation unit, when an evaluation result is negative, records the evaluation result at a predetermined time before and after the time when the evaluation result is determined to be negative. 
 
     
     
       9. The electronic control device according to  claim 1 , further comprising
 a mode transition unit configured to transition the vehicle to a degenerate mode when an evaluation result by the path evaluation unit is negative. 
 
     
     
       10. The electronic control device according to  claim 1 , wherein
 reliability of the plurality of sensors and the integration unit is ensured by redundancy. 
 
     
     
       11. The electronic control device according to  claim 1 , wherein
 the plurality of sensors include at least one of a radar and a camera.